Casting ranges from weak to meh to gradually impressive, with few performances being standout from the start. Nobody quite matched my impressions from the books, but I was really sold on a few interpretations. None of the young actors impressed me much besides Kitana Turnbull, who was fantastic as Carmelita Spats. Neil Patrick Harris as Olaf plays well and is versatile, but he's portrayed off. Esme becomes a very respectable take.
What made the books gripping was the deep and terrible unfairness of the world. Adults are realistically infuriating or else crushingly inadequate where it counts, but the series doesn't match that. It's a dark comedy the whole time, and when it's absurdist and satirical, it's dead-on to the books. But the humor is also meta and often goofy, inaccurately so, coming at the expense of the banal evil of the books and moments of genuine menace. Count Olaf is a buffoon showman who spends most of the story as the butt of the joke, but he ought to be a terrifying, classless man full of contempt. Sometimes, the villains being made entertaining rather than infuriating works (theater troupe and Carmelita), but too often, the characters I detested in the books lose their edge here. When the story is tender and sad, it can seriously work, and again, tone is often perfect (the theme song! Lemony!), but the comedy got out of control and out of spirit.
Changes are largely fine. The plot has VFD being introduced and elaborated on early in ways that feel in line with what could have happened in the book. Some characters are shuffled around, too...but there are issues. Mr. Poe being in every chapter is a bad change that reduces the impact of the kids leaving him (he does well, but it doesn't justify bumping up the role like that), and his wife plays the reporter early but is gone when the reporter actually appeared later in the series. The series is stylized, but then sometimes the world isn't as quirky as it should be. (Nero's hair isn't in hideous pigtails, the hotel is not built in mirror image to reflect correctly in its pool, etc.) Sunny also causes issues since her character is so hard to depict in live-action. Her teeth are made into veritable Swiss Army knives to compensate for scenes they couldn't adapt, but it's way too cartoonish.
This show is worth watching and has aspects that positively color my impression of the books, but to me...it's not how the story goes.
The whole thing, but not definitively dead-on.
This series has variably fulfilling direction.
Casting ranges from weak to meh to gradually impressive, with few performances being standout from the start. Nobody quite matched my impressions from the books, but I was really sold on a few interpretations. None of the young actors impressed me much besides Kitana Turnbull, who was fantastic as Carmelita Spats. Neil Patrick Harris as Olaf plays well and is versatile, but he's portrayed off. Esme becomes a very respectable take.
What made the books gripping was the deep and terrible unfairness of the world. Adults are realistically infuriating or else crushingly inadequate where it counts, but the series doesn't match that. It's a dark comedy the whole time, and when it's absurdist and satirical, it's dead-on to the books. But the humor is also meta and often goofy, inaccurately so, coming at the expense of the banal evil of the books and moments of genuine menace. Count Olaf is a buffoon showman who spends most of the story as the butt of the joke, but he ought to be a terrifying, classless man full of contempt. Sometimes, the villains being made entertaining rather than infuriating works (theater troupe and Carmelita), but too often, the characters I detested in the books lose their edge here. When the story is tender and sad, it can seriously work, and again, tone is often perfect (the theme song! Lemony!), but the comedy got out of control and out of spirit.
Changes are largely fine. The plot has VFD being introduced and elaborated on early in ways that feel in line with what could have happened in the book. Some characters are shuffled around, too...but there are issues. Mr. Poe being in every chapter is a bad change that reduces the impact of the kids leaving him (he does well, but it doesn't justify bumping up the role like that), and his wife plays the reporter early but is gone when the reporter actually appeared later in the series. The series is stylized, but then sometimes the world isn't as quirky as it should be. (Nero's hair isn't in hideous pigtails, the hotel is not built in mirror image to reflect correctly in its pool, etc.) Sunny also causes issues since her character is so hard to depict in live-action. Her teeth are made into veritable Swiss Army knives to compensate for scenes they couldn't adapt, but it's way too cartoonish.
This show is worth watching and has aspects that positively color my impression of the books, but to me...it's not how the story goes.